Deep Purple, in hopes of making a significant new album, have extended their writing and recording period through the summer, usually the time when they are busiest on the road.

"We know we will disappoint some of our fans this summer," said singer Ian Gillan. "However, we look forward very much to our autumn/winter tour and continuing our worldwide tour with our new album in 2013."

Deep Purple's last two studio albums are 2003's Bananas and 2005's Rapture of the Deep, both of which were produced by Mike Bradford.

In a 2011 interview with U.K.'s Express & Star, Gillan was asked about the ETA of a new studio album.

"The fact is that we've been touring flat out," he said. "We did 48 countries last year (2010). We're getting so much off on that we just don't feel the drive at the moment for writing.

"We were in Spain for a little while and we had a week off," he said. "We spent most of the time in the bar, to be honest with you. It was a good session, but nothing absolutely dynamic came out of it.

"I think to get some progress as far as an album's concerned you've got to have a target, you've got to work to a date, and that gives you pressure. If you've got the pressure, you get stuff done. We don't have a plan, to be honest.

"Things have always been chaos, certainly since I joined, and we've never been able to plan anything. If we'd been able to make plans, we'd probably have retired by now!"